Lawson reacts after Brown collusion claim with blunt Red Bull verdict
Miami was a mistake, not a collusion, insists Liam Lawson
Liam Lawson has rubbished Zak Brown’s claim that Racing Bulls’ radio call to let Max Verstappen through after an incident in Miami was in any way collusion between the Red Bull-owned teams.
Rather, he says it was a mistake from the team thinking he was in the wrong, and it won’t happen again.
Liam Lawson explains Miami Verstappen radio call mistake
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Lawson and Verstappen tussled for position at the Miami Grand Prix, where the two made contact at Turn 11 with both cars off the track.
Lawson came out ahead with his Racing Bulls engineer Alexandre Iliopoulos telling him to “give the position back to Max. We need to give the position back to Max. Do it as soon as possible.”
Lawson was perplexed and replied: “Drove into the side of me. I don’t understand.”
He nonetheless complied and slowed for Verstappen to overtake him.
Lawson later told the media, including PlanetF1.com, that he didn’t think he had done anything wrong but it was a team order so he complied.
“I didn’t think I had to give the place back but apparently I did, so I did,” he said.
He, though, wasn’t the only one irked by the radio message.
McLaren CEO Brown cited it in a recent letter to the FIA, in which he argued against A and B team ownership in Formula 1.
In his letter, Brown reportedly mentioned the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix where, in the midst of Lando Norris’ title fight against Max Verstappen, Racing Bulls driver Daniel Ricciardo snatched the fastest lap point away from Norris with a late pit stop.
He also highlighted Miami.
“We need to eliminate any further alliances, whether through ownership, strategic participation or any other equivalent form of control or influence, and we need to work together quickly to start the process of unwinding those already established to ensure that the future integrity of the sport is not compromised,” he wrote in the letter.
Lawson was quizzed about Brown’s Miami complaint during Thursday’s media day ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.
He insisted: “We’re doing everything by the rules. That’s the most important thing. We’re not breaking any rules with anything like that.
“And the way that incident was reviewed, if it had been any other car, it would have been the exact same decision. So it was simply that we made a mistake.”
He explained that Racing Bulls had made a snap judgement in the moment that he was the one at fault, not Verstappen, and therefore made the call for him to give the Red Bull driver the position to avoid a penalty.
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“Yeah, we made a mistake,” Lawson said. “Yeah, we shouldn’t have done that, because the move was actually Max’s fault.
“When reviewing it, I think the way it was reviewed from the team… we didn’t look at it properly.
“But you have such a short amount of time to make a decision, and that’s why you can get it wrong, and I think we did.
“But it was definitely something where, if we faced it again, we wouldn’t make the same decision.”
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